This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

The ancient telescope gleamed under the pale moonlight, its brass fittings worn smooth by centuries of stargazers' hands. Celeste Thornfield adjusted the eyepiece with practiced precision, her breath forming small clouds in the crisp autumn air that drifted through the observatory's open dome. The Royal Academy of Celestial Sciences had been her sanctuary for three years now, ever since she'd proven that women could calculate star charts just as accurately as their male counterparts—perhaps even more so.

"Still here, Miss Thornfield?" Professor Aldrich's voice echoed from the doorway, tinged with the familiar mixture of admiration and concern that had characterized their working relationship. "The clock tower chimed midnight an hour ago."

Celeste didn't lift her eye from the telescope. "The Perseus meteor shower reaches its peak tonight, Professor. I've been tracking the trajectory of what appears to be an unusually large fragment." She made a quick notation in her leather-bound journal, the ink glistening wet in the lamplight. "Something remarkable is happening up there."

Professor Aldrich approached, his footsteps careful on the wooden flooring that creaked with age and memory. The observatory had stood atop Whitmore Hill for over two centuries, weathering storms both literal and metaphorical. It had survived the Great Fire of 1847, two wars, and countless academic disputes about the nature of the heavens themselves.

"What sort of remarkable?" he asked, settling into the worn armchair that had been his perch during late-night observations for the past twenty years.

"See for yourself." Celeste stepped aside, allowing her mentor access to the telescope. She watched his weathered face as he peered through the eyepiece, noting the slight widening of his eyes that indicated surprise.